Warriors vs Roosters: The wall was fine, the grab was not

The Warriors’ used a ‘Wall’ defence against the Sydney Roosters in Auckland on Saturday night. Its use lit my social media feed up like a Haka prior to a World Cup final.

The bottom line is it was perfectly legal and I don’t know why teams haven’t been using it for years.

To illustrate what happened, we need to go back to the game situation. With time running out on the clock, the Warriors were trailing 21 points to 20 and desperate to level the scores.

They had long since lost the momentum of the game after leading 14 to 0, and then 20 to 6 in the 47th minute.

Unlike the Roosters’ field goal attempt, who were tackled only three metres from the goal-line adjacent to the posts on tackle five, the Warriors were in what I describe as an optimum position to fire over a one-pointer. The Roosters were tackled to the right of the posts and their hooker Jake Friend fired back a perfect pass to the chest of James Maloney standing 15 metres away.

And it needed to be perfect; any loop on the ball or any misdirection to the pass would have had Maloney smothered by Shaun Johnson sprinting off his line.

Its execution was sublime, with key players all performing their roles when it was required.

Which brings me back to the ‘optimum’ positioning claim that I made.

The Warriors were tackled 13 metres from the goal-line, in front of the posts.

That position gives a team certain advantages when attempting a field goal.

Firstly, the team can stand a potential kicker both left and right of the ruck, which provides two options to the attackers and commits the defenders to two players (the Roosters had only one ace card – Maloney).

Secondly, the attacking team needs only concern itself with two defenders: the markers. With the potential kickers standing a further ten metres behind the ruck, the pass needs only travel those ten metres yet the goal-line defenders need to run 23 metres to make the tackle. Johnson almost charged down Maloney’s kick despite running from the opposite side of the goal posts.

So the Warriors have negated the Johnson ‘shooter’ threat, now what to do about the only other threats?

The boys from New Zealand stood their big forwards, led by their Captain, the tireless Simon Mannering, right next to their dummy half in a human ‘wall’. They stood shoulder to shoulder rendering the marker’s job of getting to the kicker as difficult as possible.

I was asked about these players being offside, or ‘sleepers’. There is nothing in the Laws of the game that prevents this. Not in 2015 anyway. Although a generation ago it was not permitted.

Older Roarers will remember the St George Dragons using what became known as the ‘mousetrap’ play back in the early 1990s. In those days the team in possession, as well as the team in defence, were required by the laws of the game to retire five metres from the ruck.

By this point in the game’s evolution the referees were standing back the defence between eight and ten metres and allowing the team with the ball to stand wherever they wanted as long as they were behind the ruck.

It was in the days when players like Benny Elias were permitted to strike for the ball from marker, as long as the ball was placed on the ground before the marker raised his leg.

My first year of refereeing was under this rule and it was nothing short of a damned headache.

The league eliminated it the following season.

Back to the mousetrap. St George would have the tackled player play the ball with a dummy half in place. However, that first player would feign to pick up the ball and scoot off in one direction leaving the ball behind.

Meanwhile, a second Dragons player had crept up and scooped the ball, diving in the opposite direction. With the markers fooled from the first dummy half, the second dummy half would often break the line and score.

Of course this was ‘technically’ against the Laws of rugby league, and at the time it caused all sorts of consternation on both sides of the globe. This article from The Independent in 1999 describes the Rugby Football League issuing a memo declaring the move illegal.

Now that the requirement for the attackers to stand back has been removed they can stand exactly where the Warriors did on Saturday. Put all ten available players there – there’s nothing illegal about standing as a wall.

Except one aspect of that play which I had a serious question over – Mannering grabbing the marker. Curiously, the official NRL highlights cuts to the field goal vision immediately after Mannering lets the marker go.

Conversely, the highlights package leaves the Roosters play-the-ball in where there was no controversy. I understand the time limit of four minutes of highlights per game so I’ll give the NRL the benefit of the doubt.

Mannering did grab the marker, which is certainly not permitted, and the incident was considered by the video referees. Without being privy to the way they arrived at that ruling, I can only guess that they judged the marker would not have reached the kicker in time to influence the kick, even if he’d been allowed an unimpeded passage.

I’m not so sure – it looked like it had an impact to me. I would have awarded a penalty against the Warriors, not for where the forwards were positioned, but for impeding the defender.

It’s a massive call. A penalty would have condemned the Warriors to a loss and probably made the officials the headlines.

As a side-note to the positioning of the Roosters on tackle five compared to the Warriors, the Roosters employed exactly the same tactics at 21-21 as they did for their field goal to take the lead.

This time the tackle was to the left of the posts, Maloney was in identical position in front of the sticks, but this time was about to be swamped by the defence before he could get his kick away.

Instead he passed a long ball to his right, and the compressed Warriors defence was exposed. Exploiting the overlap the Roosters used their numbers to send Blake Ferguson over for the winning try.

Congratulations Sydney Roosters – too good for the Warriors during the big plays.